Phillies waste solid Aaron Nola outing in loss to Braves

Aaron Nola’s spot in the rotation has come up against the Braves 32 times over his nine-year career. Since 2019, it hasn’t been pretty.

He came into the game with a 4.45 ERA over his last 19 starts against Atlanta. Today, he lowered it to 4.23 ERA with a gutsy six shutout innings in a 5-1 loss over the Braves.

It was a complete reversal from what happened in his last outing against Atlanta on May 25. He allowed eight hits, including three home runs and five earned runs total. On paper, his stuff was better than what it was today. He made Braves hitters swing-and-miss 20 times, but the Atlanta lineup crushed every mistake he made.

There were no mistakes and that was crucial considering his stuff wasn’t fantastic this time around. Braves hitters swung and missed at only one pitch from Nola through the first three innings. They were laying off his curveball and fouling off his fastballs.

Nola, who came into the game with a 7.98 ERA in the fourth inning, battled through it, using 25 pitches to retire the side.

He excelled after that tough inning, striking out four while allowing only one hit.

But all that ultimately gets lost because the offense couldn’t touch the opposing starter Bryce Elder, who allowed only three hits through seven shutout innings.

It seems to happen every year. A relatively unknown arm emerges out of the Braves organization as one of the best starters in the sport in a given year. A ground ball pitcher, Elder induced nine outs on the ground against the Phillies order. His season ERA is down all the way to 2.40.

Yunior Marte was an out away from keeping it a manageable one-run game in the top of the 10th, but Kyle Schwarber completely missed a catchable line drive to stretch the Atlanta lead to 3-0. Marte allowed a two-run home run to the next batter Marcell Ozuna. Thanks to Schwarber’s costly mishap — and some bad official scoring, Marte was originally charged with four earned runs, ballooning his ERA from 6.89 to 8.64. The four additional runs Marte allowed were later changed to unearned runs as MLB eventually changed the ruling on the Schwarber play from a base hit to an E7.

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